Tuesday, 26 March 2013

By Nuradin Jilani
In March 2009 the former bureau head of Information, Culture & Tourism of the Somali Regional State of Ethiopia (SRS) Mr. Guled Casowe, who is now in jail charged with ‘crimes against culture and religion,’ told the VOA Somali Service in an interview that his ministry was planning to exhume the body of the Somali Dervish hero Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan from a graveyard in a place called Reegiito in Bali and rebury him in his old Fortress on the Sarmaan mountain of Iimey in the Somali Region (Ogaden). Mr. Casowe said two reasons motivated his mission: 1) To restore and preserve the cultural and historical legacy of the Sayid to Somali Region; 2) The tourism potential and development this would bring to the region in general and in the Iimey area in particular. He further emphasized that his ministry was interested in the cultural aspect of the Sayid and not in the armed liberation struggle history of which he was famous. To this end, the Somali Regional State had named a Conference Hall in Jigjiga, which service as the most important meeting place in town, after the Sayid: Hoolka Shirarka ee Sayid Maxamed Cabdille Xassan.
It is now two years since that interview and the Sayid’s remains have not yet been found. The Somali Regional State seems to have given up its search as far as we know. To this day, the great man remains buried in mystery as he lived.
The question is: why is the Ethiopian regime searching for the grave of the Sayid? Why do they want to rewrite his history? The answer is cultural control and manipulation.
What is culture?
The Kenyan born prolific writer and professor of literature, Ngugi Wa Thiong'o, who is a man regarded as this century’s most eminent African cultural fighter, supplies the following apt meaning: “Culture is a society’s identity, consciousness, psychological survival and sense of belonging” (Moving the Center, The Struggle for Cultural Freedoms, p.77).
Culture is also ‘collective self image’. “Culture carries the values, ethnical, moral, and aesthetic by which people conceptualize or see themselves and their place in history and the universe.” (Italics mine).
Ngugi further writes in another essay: “To make economic and political control effective, the colonizing power tries to control the cultural environment: education, religion, language, literature, songs, and every expression. In this way they try to control people’s values, their world outlook, and self-definition.” (Writers in Politics, p. 36).
Dr. Ngugi stands out from his peers for the way he tactically connects neo-colonialism’s economic and political control to its cultural manipulation in modern African and Third World countries. He argues whereas in the past colonialism used the school education system when they were in control of the territories to mould and control young colonized minds and inculcate in them their values and world outlook – a process he describes in the title of Bob Dixon’s book Catching them Young - it’s done today through the media, the arts and television. The end point is always the same now as in the past: to make the colonized – and the exploited - identify with the values, self-conception and world outlook of the colonizer.
Once that is done and the colonized are made to identify with the values of those who’re plundering them, the rest of colonial dozes are easy to administer. Yesterday’s colonized children who are now adults with colonial minds and presumably running their ‘independent’ countries as grown-ups become eventually, since they have no distinct values of their own and have not crafted one, The Mimic Men V. S. Naipaul's so powerfully wrote about in his novel by that title. (Decolonizing the Mind, p.17). The murdered anti-Apartheid South African writer Steve Biko wrote about this phenomenon in his book, I Write What I Like, when he said: “The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”.
These mimic men are then left to police their restive and hungry population while their resources are looted, absolving responsibility of wrongdoing for the ones who are actually doing the looting behind scenes. Not only that. The robbers can then cynically shout from the sidelines, “Have we not given you the independence you so desperately wanted? Don’t blame us for your failures.” Meanwhile, the raw materials still go to the same destination of the colonial era days, often returning in military hardware placed in the hands of the mimic men. As a result Africa’s development and prosperity has been arrested. And the result has been disastrous: it has produced a leadership whose conception of power and its exercise is modeled on colonialist practices (during colonialism uprising were put down and crashed), a leader who loses no sleep after annihilating thousands of his own people in crackdowns, and academic who thrives on writing learned treatises on the backwardness of his people. (Moving the Centre, P. 130).
The colonial doses administered in childhood are reaped bitterly in adulthood in ways more subtle and unimaginable, and unless the mentally colonized child probes the process that went into making him ‘an animated puppet’ and a ‘mimic man’ and reconnect with his roots, in the process discovering that his history was not, as it was shoved down in his tender and unsuspecting mind, ‘one long dark night’ bereft of any redeeming qualities, and that, like all human-beings he had his highs and lows, unless he does that and get his self-confidence back, he will become that slave, which Ngugi so passionately wrote about, “who is happy that he is slave and fated to be slave forever”. As that great Roman philosopher Marcus Tullius Cicero summed up: “Not to know what happened before you were born is to remain forever a child”.
In case my reader thinks I am a bit overboard and exaggerating - as the argument has it, our people are immune to this kind of mental slavery; they stand on the shoulders of great men and history - I suggest that you take a closer look at the conduct of so-called Liyuu Police who take pride in slaying their own people. These young, mostly uneducated rural men are handsomely paid and indoctrinated in such a way as to make them believe that what they are doing is right and just. In their training manuals, more time is spent on brainwashing them than preparing them physically for combat. At the graduation ceremonies of the new recruits, selected pro-government religious personalities, who are part of the indoctrination machine, deliver lectures about the virtues of fighting for and defending their country against aggressors - one of these religious mercenaries was recently comparing the Liyuu Police to the Sahaaba of Prophet Mohamed (pbuh) and telling them ‘you’re Mujahedeen who will go to paradise if you fall in battle’!
To grasp the severity of the situation further, one also needs to be acquainted with behavior of the Amharic speaking, beer drinking, Ethiopian Civil Service College trained cadres who are appointed by the TPLF to run the regional administration after they complete their political and cultural indoctrination. Men like the former “Culture Bureau Head”, Guled Casowe, who introduced to our region the now widespread act of videotaping the dead while dancing on top of them, the shameful practice of forcing innocents to admit crimes they did not commit on camera and circulating it on the internet, and the more sinister one which he was accused and charged with, that of luring young girls to perform sexual acts and recording them. Of course Mr. Casowe could not have done all these dirty things without the blessings – or rather actual participation - of his boss who later turned against him, the current president of Somali Region Mr. Abdi Iley, a man whose horrific actions words fail to describe. Men like Abdillahi Hassan “Lugbuur”, the former president Somali Region, whose job these days is to write low quality articles about how Ethiopia is a great ‘civilization’ and how Somalia was wrong to attack Ethiopian in the 1964 & 1977 war (clearly a case of brainwashed intellectual, if Lugbuur can be described as such, writing ‘learned treatises’ about the wrongness and backwardness of his people).
Furthermore, listen to the arguments of the so-called learned ones amongst us who will tell you with no shame ‘we cannot govern ourselves’ in the event Ethiopia leaves our land – those that will say ‘there will be a civil war’ in a direct echo of our colonizers. Are they not subconsciously craving, in fact calling for, to be slaves forever?
These men didn’t spring up on their own; they’re culturally corrupted system created men.
The Sayid and his Dervishes fought against this kind of mental and physical slavery; they stood tall and proud in their land and did not accept any superiority over them except that of God. The sophisticated white European colonizers could not subjugate them. They fought bitterly to this end. A testament to their enduring legacy is how throughout the Somali inhabited lands of the Horn of Africa their rich struggle legacy remains scattered everyplace, in landscape and memory.
Ethiopia’s attempt to “fossilize” the Sayid and reinvent him in a new form as a ‘Somali-Ethiopian’ cultural figure – which is an attempt at historical surgery to remove “those elements within him that constitute national consciousness” as Frantz Fanon put it in his discussion of Psychological Warfare – has two aims: 1) To kill the ‘idea of resistance’ which the Sayid and his Dervishes stood for in the consciousness of Somalis under Ethiopian colonialism and make them loose the inspiration the Dervish struggle instills on those fighting for freedom in Ogaden today and in the future; 2) To rob that beautiful history from the Somalis in general and make the Somali nation lose its historical anchor and the very idea that constituted its flag and national anthem, pan-Somalism. In a way trying to kill two birds with one stone.
The Sayid and the legendary Imam Ahmed Gurey, who is now taught in Ethiopian history as one of theirs in a very negative way, stand for the ‘Idea of Somalism.’ More than any historical figures, these two heroes are identified as founding fathers of modern day Somalia. By Ethiopianizing these figures of Somali history, Ethiopia wants to remove the rug from the feet of present day Somalis and destroy their collective selfhood and image of the past together with their future.
Whether they find the remnants of the Sayid and fossilize him into Somali-Ethiopian (an identity that doesn’t exist in reality) romantic cultural figure or not, he will remain forever buried deep in the psyche of Somalis, a genuine Somali hero with no Ethiopian appendix or prefix added to his name. (In case somebody interprets my argument as if I am saying the Dervish history does not belong to the Somalis under Ethiopian colonialism, I am not. I am saying it belongs to free Somalis or those who are struggling to free themselves. It is struggle and resistance history, one which cannot be claimed by slavish servants and spokesmen of colonialism.)
If the Ethiopian regime is serious about giving the Somalis under its colonialism their history back, we may ask: why have they changed the old flag that had the Somali star on the side? Why have they made Friday a working day and Sunday a holiday in the predominantly Muslim Somali Region? Why have they changed the Sharia law into secular family law? Why temper with what constitutes Somali identity? And why, among the multitudes of ‘romantic’ cultural figures they can pick in Ogaden - such as Wiil-waal, Raage Ugaas, Qamaan Bulhan, and others - have they chosen the Sayid? And finally, why not teach in schools the struggle history of WSLF against the common Derg enemy of which the two parties, WSLF & TPLF, fought together?
When all is said and done, one salient defiant attribute of the Sayid stands out and speaks for itself: he refused to surrender and submit to the British Empire even when he was defeated and his health was rapidly deteriorating. He knew that he lived for posterity and didn’t want to taint his legacy. He died holding the torch of freedom. And this is something that cannot be taken away him.
Some Somalis are unwittingly helping in the distortion and destruction of their history. For example, the famous playwright and poet Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame (Hadraawi), could say with confidence that the Sayid was ‘a power maniac and dictator’, someone whose political side he did not like: "The poems [of the Sayid] I like are not political," Hadraawi said, adding it’s those "…about trees and stars, the rivers and rains and seasons…and camels" he prefers, to a reporter for Newsweek Magazine who came to Somalia to establish the link between Osama Bin Laden and Sayid Mohamed Abdille Hassan! (It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World - Newsweek Sep 30, 2009). We can understand the attitude of Guled Casowe when he says he wants to do away with that part of the Sayid he doesn’t like, but how can we comprehend Hadraawi’s logic? Also, the education departments of regional administrations in Somalia deliberately undervalue the rich historic contribution of the Dervishes in the struggle for freedom in Somalia. Perhaps I am naïve to expect those who mourn the death of Richard Cornfield at the hands of the Dervishes to valorize those who killed him!
Coupled with this is the new assault on the person of the Sayid by some of Somalia’s so-called ‘revisionist historians’ who copy and paste biased British propaganda characterizations of the man and pass it as learned historical treatises.
To underscore the importance of historical figures, recently Greece and Macedonia were at loggerheads over a statue that had resemblance to Alexander the Great which the latter country had built in the center of its capital city Skopje, even though Alexander was both Greek and Macedon in ancestry. The long drawn-out battle between Ethiopia and Italy over the return of the Axum Obelisk is another example. The still on-going clashes between Thailand and Cambodia about the ownership of a Buddhist shrine in the un-demarcated border area that separates the two countries is another case in point. Poor Somalis! Geel ninkii lahaa dhacayo side looga dhiciyaa?
Abdulahi Macalin Dhoodaan
If the Sayid was deceased historical figure who cannot speak for himself now to set the record straight, though his legacy does that, the living Ogaden poet Abdillahi Macalin Dhoodaan is another figure who was made to repudiate his intellectual and poetic contribution to the struggle for freedom in Ogaden. Not long ago Dhoodan was made to take part in a self-degrading propaganda play against the ONLF which featured Somali women chewing Khat and performing immoral acts. Dhoodan’s vocation these days is to insfult ONLF leaders in public speeches and composes low quality poems against the struggle and is a regular guest in security related tours by regional politicians to the provinces.
Prior to his coups de grace, Dhoodan was a firebrand poet who has contributed immensely to the freedom struggle in Ogaden and the molding of a distinct Ogaden national consciousness using the medium of oral poetry – which was at time the most potent means of communication - to motivate, stir up, and agitate our masses against colonialism.
The intellectual manipulation method of making influential people in the struggle – past or present - repudiate their previous nationalist stances and turning them against it was recently best described in our case by a perceptive Kenyan analyst, Andrew Koriri, in article he wrote about the so-called ‘peace deal’ in Ogaden, entitled Yet another 'peace deal' in Ogaden.
Koriri says this method is called “The Utility of Turns” and its one which has been used effectively throughout history to discredit opponents: “Throughout the history of mankind, converts have been used to show the superiority of one’s religion, idea or system. ‘Turns’ are a vital expression of triumphant power, proof that a cause is convincing and potent. So, by fronting ‘ex-ONLF’ men who have discarded their ‘wrong’ ideologies, the regime in Addis Ababa hopes to show that the ONLF is pursuing a lost cause. That is also another reason why it is imperative to import men from the Diaspora; men who may or may not have anything to do with ONLF, and parade them to the local and international media to prove the quandary in which the ONLF is in.”
Currently this method is used more on the cultural front than on the political. Since 2009 famous Somali singers who espoused the idea of self-determination for Ogaden were lured into Ethiopia and made to sing songs in praise of the Ethiopian regime. Thus Mohamed Saleebaan Tubeec whose memorable song Geesiga dhulkiisa guusha u horseeda made thousands of Somali youth throw themselves into Ethiopian tank fire in 1977 war was paid to sing another tune in praise of the very enemy that was tormenting his people in different guise. Cadar Axmed Khaahin (April 2010); Nimco Dareen (June 2011); Waayahay Cusub (September, 2011) are some of the bought singers who were in the struggle or sympathized with it before they became ‘turns’.
Waayaha Cusub were specifically known for their outspokenness against Ethiopia, more so since Ethiopia’s invasion and occupation of Somalia in 2006. Their memorable songs – titles such as Gumeeysiga Itoobiya, Soomaliyaay Diriroo Dagaalama, Dabadhilif - are hard to erase from conscience of the Somali youth. But I admit it had a demonizing effect on some. Trust in people who carry nationalist message is as result severely wounded. The profession of singing has been made to suffer as singers are portrayed today as conscienceless people who are only after money.
One wonders why Ethiopia is singling out in its ‘turns’ policy the anti-colonial historical (either dead or living) cultural figures and singers, specifically those who are most vocal against them. If they were interested in romantic cultural figures, why not attract individuals who sang love songs instead of those in the struggle?
By enlisting the service of these previously nationalist singers, the regime in Ethiopia hopes its brutal colonial practices in Ogaden would appear cool and acceptable to the people. In other words they’re formalizing ‘the culture of subservience’ as Ngugi put it in one of his arguments - something which is new to our centuries old conflict with Ethiopia. Ultimately it’s ‘the idea’ they are after, as that perceptive Kenyan writer Andrew Koriri said. And since ideas are espoused by people, their strategy is to kill the idea by rewriting the message of its carriers in the past in a new placatory form, and corrupting the image of its present carriers by using all-means-necessary approach to achieve it. But ideas outlive individuals. I can only say ‘it is too late’ to those who have discovered at this late stage that our people can only be made to accept their rule when they are culturally destroyed. Some Somalis may be brainwashed to lose their self-respect and identity temporarily, but the spirit of Somalism can never be annihilated.
Finally, as there is in every colonized society a ‘culture of subservience’ formalized by the occupying power, there is also a counter ‘culture of resistance’. And for that we are thankful to those resisting damnation in our struggle for political, economic and cultural freedom in Ogaden.
The Author, Nuradin Jilani can be reached at nuradinjilani@gmail.com

Here is my new watercolor painting, still work i n progress, the beautiful Somali woman from the Ogaden, Ethiopia.
From an early age on, as child I was captivated by the African people and their art. As an adult I got at my work in intense contact with the African culture, their artifacts and music and I became more and more fascinated by the beauty, strength and vitality of the people. My African art embrace the poetry of nuance and gesture and show the extraordinary diversity of cultures. Then there is the incredible variety of African jewelry and adornment. They inspired me to create my own jewelry line where every bead is a precious gift from ancient times and every necklace is unique in its own.
The African tribes with their marvelous body decorations, their beautiful jewelry, their stamina and strength, love for music and dance continue to inspire me….
I hope you love my paintings the same way I do and will follow me on my future passages

Friday, 22 March 2013

by GRAHAM PEEBLES

“Every night, they took all of us girls to [interrogations]. They would separate us and beat us. The second time they took me, they raped me… All three of the men raped me, consecutively”.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) report in Collective Punishment

Along with 15 other female students, this innocent 17 year-old Somali girl of Ogaden, was held captive for three months in a “dark hole in the ground” and raped 13 times. This is just one of countless accounts of abuse, from within the Ogaden region of Ethiopia, where it is widely reported criminal acts like these are perpetrated by the Ethiopian military and paramilitary forces on a daily basis. Untold atrocities like this; past and present are awaiting investigation, amid what is a much-ignored, little known conflict in the Horn of Africa.

In an attempt to hide the facts from the rest of the world, in 2007 the Ethiopian government banned all international media, and expelled many humanitarian aid groups from the area. It is reputed that any Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO’s) allowed to stay do so on the condition that they sign a waiver document, agreeing not to report human rights violations by the government. Ethiopia, Leslie Lefkow of HRW states, “is one of the most difficult places to work for human rights groups or humanitarian agencies on the African continent”, and the Ogaden (a barren land, littered with military remnants from past conflicts), “is one of the most difficult places to work in Ethiopia.”There are “huge challenges to doing investigations on the ground because the security apparatus of the government is extremely extensive and permeates even the lowest levels, the grass roots, the village levels”, where regime spies and informers operate, reporting anything and anyone suspicious.

Information about life within the region comes from whispering sources on the ground, and from those who have fled the violence, and are now living outside Ethiopia. Many are in refugee camps in Kenya and Yemen, from where they recount stories of horrific abuse. Mohammed, from the Dhadhaab (or Dadaab) camp in Kenya, described to Ogaden Online (OO) 1/12/2012 how he was captured by the Ethiopian military, accused of being a supporter of the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) and mercilessly tortured. “They hogtied me”, he said, “and then flogged me while pinned down.” Mohamed’s face “was disfigured to the point where he can’t be recognized”. Refugees support Amnesty International’s (AI) findings of “torture and extrajudicial executions of detainees in the region” – women tell of multiple gang rapes, their arms, feet and necks tied with wire, for which they bear the scars, men speak of barbaric torture techniques at the hands of the Ethiopian military and paramilitary – the notorious, semi legal, completely barbaric Liyu Police, who, Laetitia Bader of HRW says, “fit into this context of impunity where security forces can do more or less what they want”.

The ONLF is cast as the enemy of the state, and regarded, as all dissenting troublesome groups are, as terrorists. They in fact won 60% of seats and were democratically elected to the regional parliament in the only inclusive open elections to be held, back in 1992. Civilians suspected, however vaguely of supporting the so-called ‘rebels’, are forcibly re-located from their homes. The evacuated villages and settlements, emptied at gunpoint HRW (CP) record, “become no-go areas” and in a further act of state criminality, “civilians who remain behind risk being shot on sight, tortured, or raped if spotted by soldiers”. Children, refugees report are hanged, villages and settlements razed to the ground and cattle stolen to feed soldiers: HRW record (CP), “water sources and wells have [also] been destroyed”. Systematic, strategic methods of violence and intimidation employed by the Ethiopian regime, that has, Genocide Watch (GW) state, “initiated a genocidal campaign against the Somali population of Ogaden”.

Pervasive pernicious control

Spearheading the Governments campaign of terror in the region is the Liyu Police. A force of 10,000-14,000 18-20 year olds, with little or no knowledge of criminal law or human Rights, David Mepham UK Director of HRW told The Guardian 15/01/2013, that “for years we have documented egregious human rights abuses committed by the Liyu police, including the March 2012 extra-judicial execution of 10 men in their custody and the killing of nine other villagers”. Established initially in 2005, to replace a discredited military, the Liyu initiative was the brainchild of a group led by the current regional President, Abdi Mohamoud Omar and was eagerly embraced by the late Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. His Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front(EPRDF) regime was and remains, at war with the ONLF, who are seeking self-determination for the five million ethnic Somali’s, in line with their constitutional rights under the governments Ethnic Federalism policy.

The EPRDF is a highly controlling repressive regime, which has extended its pervasive reach in the nine districts of the Ogaden, to where, HRW (CP) records, “security committees, which exist at every administrative level [and]… include members of the armed forces, military intelligence, security officials.” The local administration in Ogaden “does nothing but carry out Ethiopian dictates and represents the interests of the present, centralised regime,” the Ogadeni Women’s Relief Association (OWRA) record in their study, A Place to Call Home. Dictates’ of government brutality and intimidation regimentally carried out by the Ethiopian military apparatus, fully equipped by their principle donor, America, who GW recommend, should “immediately cease all military assistance”.

Terrifying tools of oppression and imprisonment

The current regime operates under the premiership of Hailemariam Desalegn, who, true to his inaugural word, is following in predecessor Meles Zenawi’s shoes – has expanded the EPRDF’s repertoire of violence and control and, in addition to the range of violent measures employed, is imposing additional economic pressures, intimidation and extortion the name of the game. It is widely reported that In the midst of the current dry (or Jilaal) season, new taxes are being levied on water drawn from wells for livestock and domestic use. Sums of up to $150 are reportedly being charged to people living in rural areas, already burdened by an economic and aid embargo, which is causing civilians great hardship.

Additional tax demands are also being made – OO (8/03/2013) carry the story that, “reliable reports…. confirm the imposition of what the locals term an illegal ‘head tax’, imposed on the civilian population as well as on their livestock”. A local elder, whose “family consists of eight children and he and his wife” received an arbitrary charge of “150 Ethiopian Birrs ($8) per individual regardless of age or gender”, a total of 1200 birr ($56) – far beyond his means.

Kidnapping, with subsequent ransom demands, is another applied tool of terror. Family members, abducted and imprisoned, are released upon receipt of ransom payments, made either by relatives inside Ethiopia or those living overseas. Levels of extortion vary, with those in the west paying anything from “$300 to $1,500”; the McGill Report found “in some cases those amounts were contributions to total collected ransoms of more than $10,000”. This criminal practice is widespread: civilians are arrested and imprisoned, without regard to due process, often repeatedly as Ifraah, a 25 year-old Somali woman of Ogaden, told the OWRA: “To be released, you have to pay the Ethiopian military from 1,000 ($56) to 2,000 birr ($112). And the price keeps going up. If they suspect that the family has money, they raise the price. Poor people often stay in prison much longer because they can’t raise the ransom. It happened to me twice. The first time I wasn’t yet married. I spent a couple of months in prison and had to pay 500 birr ($28); the second time, I had to pay 1,000.” It’s a business in human suffering, “arrests also benefit the military; it’s a flourishing trade. Innocent people are captured and have to come up with a lot of money to free themselves.” This illegal income, it is widely believed, is being used to supplement the paramilitary soldiers salaries’. “There are women thrown into prison five times, and each time they have to pay to get out. But economic factors are not the only ones. There’s also torture and rape”.

Civilians like Ifraah indiscriminately accused of supporting the ONLF are detained without charge. Leslie Lefkow of HRW makes clear that, “the way the EPRDF targets people, is an enormous problem from a human rights point of view”. HRW have been monitoring the situation in the region for the past five years, and have seen and documented a range of Human Rights abuses, including “arbitrary detaining [of] family members, often for long periods of time, sexual violence against women and girls, sometimes if they are viewed as being members of the ONLF or supporters or simply because they are family members [of ONLF supporters]. There is a kind of ‘guilt by association’ that is used to target the family members”, punishable by “summary executions… where suspected ONLF supporters have been executed in cold blood.”

Incarcerated in what are often makeshift prisons (e.g. deserted school buildings), prisoners held in appalling conditions, are tortured, abused and intimidated. Ina and Halima, two young women from the town of Saga, were, OO 21/01/2011 report, “suspended in the air by their ankles with their legs spread wide, while the soldiers poured water mixed with red chilli powder over them [and] applied [it] in and around the victims’ genitalia, causing severe burns.” In ‘prison’ there are no medical facilities and, Ifraah says, no food: “You get your food from relatives. If you don’t have anyone nearby, your relatives send money to people who live there so they can buy you food”; or inmates share what little they have. Abdullahi, held amongst, others without trial for nine months, related to OWRA how their captors “locked us in an underground room” Young girls are regarded as Liyu property, kidnapped, held captive and repeatedly raped, often falling pregnant in the process. “Little girls”, record OWRA, “13 to 15-year-olds, in prison and suddenly pregnant….at night you hear the girls screaming when soldiers take them from their cells” – their dignity and childhood stolen from them.

Government genocide

The government’s so-called counter-insurgency policy in the Ogaden is, in truth, a form of genocide and is regarded as such by GW. Is it ethnic hatred, fear and loathing of the ‘other’, or simply greed for the regions natural resources – the oil and natural gas that drives the government’s violent, multi-pronged approach? An approach that HRW (CP) makes clear, aims “at cutting off economic resources, weakening the ONLF’s civilian support base, and confining its geographic area of operation”. In pursuing these duplicitous goals, the Ethiopian regime seems to exist on an island of impunity, hidden from the international community; as The Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) state, “there is a shocking lack of international attention directed at the situation” and, despite the “substantial documentation of the violations committed…published by human rights NGOs, governments and media outlets”, nothing is being done.

Let us be clear and state, unequivocally the findings of Human Rights groups: that the Ethiopian military and paramilitary is committing wide-ranging Human Rights violations in the Ogaden, which constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity. “The situation” should, as GW demand, be “referred by the UN Security Council to the International Criminal Court (ICC)”.

Such Human Rights violations are not confined to the Ogaden region. GW consider “Ethiopia to have already reached Stage 7 (of 8), genocide massacres, against many of its peoples, including the Anuak, Ogadeni, Oromo, and Omo tribes”. The EPRDF, unsurprisingly, plead innocent to all such accusations of abuse and state criminality and dismiss allegations of human rights abuse substantiated by reports from international human rights group such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The Ogadeni regional president claims, they “peddle lies and propaganda from our enemies”. However, if the Ethiopian government has nothing to hide, why don’t they allow independent investigators and journalists access to the Ogaden region?

The shocking accounts of violence and abuse are endless. The situation is clearly extremely critical and demands the immediate attention of Ethiopia’s main benefactors – America and sister donor nations, the European Union and Britain. To continue to ignore the evidence of state criminality and to blindly support the Ethiopian government in the face of such persecution, is to be complicit in the murder and violent abuse of the innocent people of the Ogaden region.

Thursday, 21 March 2013

There once was a beautiful land in the far corner of Eastern Africa. This was a very special land for it had many riches and natural resources. Green grass, tall trees and you could find breath-taking water falls every step of the way. People were very frantic and friendly to one another. There existed no strangers in this land everyone that came to visit was reached out with kindness and hospitality. The small communities that occupied this region had close ties with each other and supported one another.

The elders were well respected; the youngsters were cared for; the mothers were supported, and the fathers were encouraged to work hard to build better future for their families. Everyone in the community helped each other to contribute to a productive society. If there ever had been a utopia it must have existed in this region. This seemed like one of the stories in books and movies with happily ever after titles except this wasn't a fairytale it was real. In fact this exceptionally gorgeous land was once called the Ogaden region. It once was the heart of Eastern Africa; the attraction of all the tourist, and the one destination where people loved to go for sight seeing and connecting with nature.

The Ogaden region is located in the Horn of Africa and its people are Somali yet they find themselves within the borders claimed by modern day Ethiopia. Here is what Wikipedia says about the location of the region. “The inhabitants are predominantly ethnic Somali and Muslim. The title "Somali Galbeed", which means "Western Somalia," is often preferred by Somali irredentists. The region, which is around 200,000 square kilometres, borders Djibouti, Kenya, and Somalia.[1] Important towns include Jijiga (Jigjiga), Degehabur,Gode (Godey),Kebri Dahar (Qabridahare), Fiq,Shilavo (Shilaabo), Kelafo, Werder (Wardheer), and Denan.”

This region is a hotbed in the conflict between the Ethiopian regime and its Somali inhabitants. The people in this region consider themselves Somali; they share language, culture, and religion with Somalia. The issues in here are far from border issues and much more complex than one would think. You have a group of 6 to 8million people who are geographically stuck in Ethiopia yet disconnected from the rest of the country. It has been like this since about 150 years when the British and the Italian colonies put these borders in place. The Somali people of the occupied Ogaden have been trying to break from Ethiopia ever since then. Sadly, they aren’t treated as Ethiopian citizens and they don’t consider themselves Ethiopians either.

This region is the Death Valley of Eastern Africa today and that is why I like to call it the forgotten land of horror. Its people are hung, killed, tortured, raped, and strangled to death. The so called government of Ethiopia violates the human rights of these people yet the world sits back and watches. At any given day there are crimes against humanity taking place in this part of the world. Women are subjected to gang rape, torture, and being burnedalive. If the government suspects you of not supporting the current administration you will be hung and your dead body will be displayed in the street. Families don’t dare to pick up their loved ones’ dead body that has been displayed as an art piece in the middle of busy streets by merciless mercenaries masquerading as the Ethiopian army.

I have never been to the region but both my parents were born and raised there. My father, may he rest in peace, spent all his life fighting for the rights of Somalis in the Occuped Ogaden. I don’t remember much about him because he was always on the go to fight a war somewhere in the Ogaden region. I hated the fact that the Ogaden cause took my father away from me; however, as I grew up I fully understood and supported the noble job he was doing. He saw injustice and wanted to change that even if it would cost him his life, and me and my siblings the fatherly bond we dearly missed.

It has been 19 years since my father’s death and the struggle of the people of Ogaden still continues. The situation in the Ogaden region hasn’t gotten any better, in fact it has worsened. One would think it is the 21st century; that colonization ended in the early part of the 20th century, but there is an ugly one that has been maintained by the Ethiopian regime in the Ogaden.

The Somalis of the Ocupied Ogaden experience far worse treatments than any of the colonies in the past. They have no food, water, access to education, and the right to voice their concerns. Plus, they are subject to horrific crimes everyday of their lives. Isn’t that what colonies did in the past?

The world promised no more genocide after the Holocaust yet watched the Rwanda genocide. Another promise was made to no more genocide yet Darfur happened. Now there is an active one in the Ogaden region. I wonder how many promises does the world need to break to stop the genocide that is taking root in places such as the Ogaden. If the world truly means to put genocide to full stop this should be it.

Why not now? Why not the Ogaden region. How many more children do we put to the grave yard before their 5th birthday? How many more women do we have to watch and witness as they get gang raped by Ethiopian soldiers? How many more innocent lives have to pay a terrible price till we do something about this issue?

Let’s make a promise this time and fulfill it. Let’s pledge to no more genocide and this time truly mean it and act on it. Let’s end the sufferings of our fellow humans. And please let’s end the genocide that is currently taking place in the Ethiopian-occupied Ogaden region. Let’s hold hand and escort this genocide now. Let us prosecute its perpetrators. I hope, and wish, that the world would end the Ogaden genocide Now and Give a child a second chance in life.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

Huud Badru Diin (center), spokesman of the Ogaden community in South Africa addressing a press conference in Johannesburg on Saturday.Hassan Isilow

The Ogaden refugee community in South Africa has patiently waited for a year since they requested the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to investigate human rights abuses committed by the Ethiopian government in the Ogaden region of that country. "Last year we requested South African authorities to exercise jurisdiction to investigate and prosecute the Ethiopian government under the implementation of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court Act 27 of 2002, if the offender is found within South Africa," Huud Badru Diin, spokesman of the Ogaden community in South Africa told a press conference in Johannesburg on Saturday.

He said the Ogaden region is geographical located in Eastern Africa, and 98% of the inhabitants are Somalis. Diin said the Ethiopian military regularly makes raids on Ogaden region where they rape women, abduct young girls and kill any males they find. When asked why they were being persecuted, Diin said because they are 99% Muslims and Somalis. "Although we are administered by Ethiopian, we have no rights in our country. We are considered to be foreigners in our own land. We have no hospitals, roads or schools. The Ethiopian government is suffocating us because we are Muslims and Somalis by ethnicity. This government hates us, Muslims," he claimed.

Following the constant raids on Ogaden region by the Ethiopian Military, a militant group was formed the 15th of August, 1984 by the Ogaden community to counter the attacks. The Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF) is currently fighting to defend their territory and the rights of its people from Ethiopian military raids. Leaders of the ONLF are demanding to break away from Ethiopia and become an independent state, but the Ethiopia's government has refused and occasional makes aerial attacks on the area killing civilians and destroying property.

Diin said the international community has also remained silent on the on-going "genocide" in the Ogaden region. He added that their only hope is to get assistance from the South African government and civil society organizations. Last year, the Media Review Network (MRN) and attorney Afzal Abba, filed a 700-page complaint against the Ethiopian government with the commissioner of police, the head of the directorate of priority crimes investigation unit and the director of public prosecutions.

Abba said the complaint detailed incontrovertible evidence of human rights abuses and war crimes on the part of the Ethiopian government. However, he did not give names of the Ethiopian government officials accused of committing crimes in Ogaden region, saying that if the SA government finally takes an interest in this case and investigates the crime, then the country would have set a tough precedent of investigating rights abuses across the continent. This was critical since many African countries look up to South Africa in terms of democracy and the rule of law. VOC (Hassan Isilow)

The 2013 Humanitarian Requirements Document (HRD) (Ethiopia-HRD_Jan_June-2013-1) covering the first half of the year (Jan-June) was launched on 28 February. The document identifies emergency requirements in the food and non-food sectors based on the findings of the joint multi-sectoral assessment conducted from 20 November to 15 December 2012, as well as government early warning information. In the first half of 2013, some 2.4 million people will require relief food assistance nationwide. As in the previous year, the regions with the highest requirements are Somali (963,801) beneficiaries or 38 per cent), and Oromia (846,417 beneficiaries or 34 per cent).

The pastoralist and agro-pastoralist parts of southern Oromia, central and southern Somali and northern Afar Regions will also likely experience water and pasture shortages, through the next rainy season. However, since mid-February, the Ethiopian Army and its Associated militia-the Liyu Police has occupied most of Ogaden well during the rainy season and has imposed drac onian scheme to collect illegal money on the poor agro pastoral communities.

An average family may bring to the wells 50 camels, 80 goats and sheep, 2 camels carrying water containers for the families ( Dhaan), four members of the family (5950 Bir a day). This may happen twice for the camel watering and four times for the sheep/goat and people a month. The cost to family for a month will be around 12, 800 EBir, which is equivalent to 640 USD (12800 x 0.05). The cost for a family with 40 cows, 2 water-carrying camels, 2 donkeys, 50 goats and sheep, and 3 family members may be around 10,500 Ebir, which is equivalent to 525 USD. The Ogaden Somalis are the poorest in Ethiopia and forced to pay each month six times the amount of Ethiopia’s annual per Capita GDP of 1200 USD.
Ethiopian Review.